STUDENTS of Brimsham Green School in Yate were invited to pitch their own business models to a board of ‘Dragons’.

The school has been running a new careers based project with students, based on the BBC show Dragon’s Den.

21 Year 7 pupils took part in the programme and were invited to pitch their ideas to four business dragons.

The board consisted of: Karen Stallabrass, restaurateur and owner of The Stables at Vayre House, Brendan Byrne, landlord of The Lamb at Iron Acton, Paul Grimes, owner and manager of Wotton Farm Shop and café and Andy Wiseman, Operational Director of Hobbs House Bakery.

The pupils worked in small groups over a number of lessons and had to develop their own business model and plan.

They needed to consider many aspects of setting up a catering business, including location, theme, staffing , whilst also considering other competitors in the market.

The pupils then had to pitch their ideas to the judges from the catering industry and restaurant world at The Stables restaurant in Chipping Sodbury on the January 22.

Luke Penberthy, Brimsham Green School’s Career Co-ordinator said: “The year 7 students were excited, and somewhat daunted, by the prospect of giving their presentations to real business people in such an appropriate venue.

“The purpose of the project was to develop a wide range of employability skills in the context of a real workplace.

“A big thank you to Karen Stallabrass from The Stables for allowing us to use her restaurant as the location for the pitch; it was great to see students speak with such confidence about their ideas and to ask local employers so many questions about what it is like owning a restaurant.

“Thanks also to the judges, Karen, Brendan, Paul and Andy who gave up their valuable time to grill our students.

“A huge congratulations go to the appropriately named ‘Comida’, whose Mexican themed restaurant appealed to the judges and were crowned the winners.”

The students will have more projects like this to work on.”